10/16/12

Tour cancelled - Read the whole story

So, as most of you readers allready know, we had to cancel the rest of the shows on tour with Voivod after our drummer collapsed during the first song in Betong, Oslo on saturday 13.10.2012. Alot of shit happened to us before that, so here's the whole story continued from the latest post!

Mon 8.10.2012.

Our van broke down at bremen on monday, right after leaving the hotel where we spent the night. The estimated time to fix it after finding a proper VW brandrepairshop was 2 days, so we were forced to take two rental cars and try to make it to the show in Magasin4, Brussel, Belgium. Unfortunately there was a really strict curfew and really early showtime, so of course we were 1 hour late, and couldn't play anymore. Anyway we met the guys from Voivod, and partied them with 9% belgian beer. Really nice guys, and a really nice place, so what's there to complain. This is the fucking music life!

At the repairshop

Waiting at the repairshop

Blacky from Voivod giving Marko a massage

Snake and Blacky from Voivod doing a proper pose with some belgium dudes

Nijmegen, Netherlands. The place was called Doornroosje, and we really enjoyed it. The venue was supernice and the show was a good starter, and even while we are an unknown band to most of the voivod fans, we still got really good feedback. They were also making a photo series shot in the backstage shower, of bands playing there in which we participated. Cant't wait to see the pictures.

The venue from outside

First one done, a lot more ahead!

Wednesday 10.10.2012

Turock in Essen, Germany. The show was definitely a better one on our part and we got our van back from the repair shop, so the tour could finally resume as it was supposed to rol.

The venue from outside

A lot of people came to watch our show

Proper respect to our drivers Heikki and Ari for driving like maniacs just to get to Bremen in time to return the rental cars and of course driving back to Essen to pick us up! The night after the show was also spent in Bremen so Tumppi had the honour to drive back there since it was on the way for next show. This was the moment when we realised that a tour planned for a nightliner, would be a absolute killer with a van.

The van got 2 brand new tires, since the front ones were worn and ready to explode. The main problem was probably the tie rod attachement/bearings (can't describe it better), that had worn out the tires. Or at least that's what we figured comparing what we understood from the repairshop invoice.

The most funny part was that the car had just got back from maintenance from a repairshop in Finland where they were supposed to have checked everything, i mean every fucking part from the car, but apparently they didn't. Tumppi and Marko are planning to make a trip to the shop once we get back home!

Hello sir, so you were the one who "repaired" our car?

Here's what this shit cost for us!

repair 726 e

extra diesel 240 e

rental cars 380

1346 euros total + the fee from brussel show which we missed!

Thursday 11.10.2012.

After 5 hours of sleep, it was time to leave Germany behind for a while, and head to next place, which was Loppen in the freetown Christiania, Denmark. No problems with anything except the fact that we got pulled aside for a drug/gun raid by the german border patrol right before the ferry to Denmark. We had to unload all the gear and luggage and have them gone through by a dog and several police officers including an x-ray machine at the end of the inspection. Fortunately, as far as the german border patrol were concerned, we had nothing illegal on us. We only lost like 1 hour on this circus and got to continue on to the ferry and to Loppen.

The show was good - not that many people watching us, but the ones who were, seemed to enjoy it fully, and the sound was excellent. Tumppi and Heikki (our tech engineer/driver) had to take pictures with a heavy metal pose and we sold a lot more merch than on the previous nights.

All backline had to be lifted upstairs.

After leaving the venue we saw Blackie from Voivod sitting on a trailer of a tractor. It was the middle of the night and we had just been in Christiania, so it was hard to tell if this was true or some kind of hallucination? Either we were just tired or their bus just couldn't fit in the narrow streets of Christiania - we might never know - but still it was a sight that we will never forget! Maybe one of the best moments that happened on this tour.

We spent the night in Ungdomshuset's band room, comfy but a bit breezy one.

Ungdomshuset is a really nice place, ran by volunteers, with one smaller and one bigger venues + a lot of more space, like a book café, film screenings, yoga, dancing, workshops, rehearsal rooms and a studio for bands. Read more about the place at here.

Our drummer Saku woke up in the middle of the night with a really strange panicish feeling he hadn't have in ages, so we had to order a doctor just to check there wasnt't anything serious wrong with his system. After the doctors visit, we decided to hit the beds for a few hours and leave to Oslo, Norway early and see how things would go from hereon...

Friday 12.10.2012.

A nice 10 hour drive ahead, so we had to leave really early. Suprisingly we didn't have any problems on the way to Betong, Oslo, which was planned to be the next venue. Yet Saku was still feeling queasy and had some anxiety from the episode he experienced last night. He was basically sleeping on the van's floor during the whole drive.

You can really smell the glamour of music life on this picture

Eventually we arrived to Oslo and the venue was again a really cool one, with alot of nice people and good hospitality. Before the show Saku was still feeling pretty bad, but we still decided to hit the stage and try to make the show happen.

We only got like half of the first song in, and saku collapsed after exhaustion and had a really strong anxiety and hyperventilation going on. We cut out the show and apologised to the crowd and started to figure out what to do. The staff from Betong, and their security officer were really nice to us and managed to settle the situation out. The emergency services advised us to take a taxi to the nearest hospital, since it was a friday night, and you could have to wait for an ambulance for a while. After checking that his condition was physically alright, it was time to go to Tom and Helge's house, who provided us a sleeping place and super cosy feeling after all the shit happened.

We talked for a while about the situation, and all agreed that the only option is to cancel the rest of the tour. We were too concerned about our friends health condition and also didn't want to risk this happening again on the road. Everybody had extreme frustration about the situation and of all the hardships beginning with the van breaking down this was just too much for us. Also at least half of us were having a fever and a really strong flu after sleeping those 4-5 hours nights and sitting in the van for allmost 10 hours every day.

Saturday 13.10.2012.

It was the first morning, that we got to sleep properly and everyone felt quite good despite the situation we'd experienced. We started to take care of everything that could be done in this situation, first an announcement to the promoter, booking agencies, tour managers and all the other parties involved. Then a short press release to venues and to our Facebook-page. Then figure out how to get back to finland, how to change flights/ferries and how to cancel all hostels in order to save at least some money. We decided that Saku will leave Oslo with a plane, so he would be home as soon as possible, and the rest of us will take the sunday morning ferry from Stockholm to Turku. Tommi had allready booked a small vacation to Berlin with his girlfriend, for the day of on monday and had hostels reserved, so the plan was to take him to an airport near Stockholm.

We took Saku to the Gardemoen airport in Oslo and Tumppi went in with him to see that the check in would go along fine. No problems with that whatsoever, and we left Saku to the airport and hit the road to Stockholm. After driving for like 6 hours, Saku called us and said that he had a another seizure at the airport, and had to go to the nearest hospital to get checked out. We all felt really bummed about the situation, 'cause there wasn't anything that the rest of us could do. Driving back to Oslo would have meant missing the ferry and Tommi's flight, and Saku was basically allright, but was forced to spend another night in Oslo and of course missed the flight originally planned. After what happened, it goes without saying that cancelling the rest of the tour was definitely the only right choice to make.

The rest of the trip went smoothly, even though we all were thinking constantly what would happen next. Saku was at home basically the same time as we were on sunday evening, so it's was good to be back home. On monday we all slept almost the whole day and were now starting to feel like humans again. The band has been together for over 15 years, and during that time we have done over a dozen eurotours and managed to carry them trough. From squatted houses full of dog shit, trough sleeping places with no roof and below zero temperatures to some really cool venues like every place were on this tour. Still this was a really rough one for us, yet it was a once in a lifetime experience and it gave us a shitload of good memories that will stay with us for the rest of our lives.

What's next. We're still on for the show with Voivod at Nosturi, Helsinki, Finland 31.10.2012 and we have A SHITLOAD OF MERCH LEFT. So please support us and buy something, so we can lift ourselves up from the dire straits.

We've also started to record the new full lenght album and try to finish it during November, so it could be out next spring. Stay tuned for more news and if you have any pictures or videos from the 3 shows we had the honour to play with Voivod, please post them on the comments, or send us email to unkindhardcore ÄT gmail dot com. And go check out Voivod on their tour, 'cause they are fucking killer every night!

Finally, a huge thanks to those who made this happen: Tony from First contact Agency, Pip and Bob from Relapse records, The guys from Voivod and Toad the tour manager, The super nice people who offered us a place to crash: Luuk, Morten, Tom and Helge and of course all the people who came to watch us!